We can restore the climate of the 1980s by 2070. It won’t require a miracle or big sacrifices, just the will and policies to do it. Top climate scientists confirm this is possible.

Restoring the climate requires that we switch to carbon-free energy by 2030-2050, as described by Stanford’s Prof. Mark Z. Jacobson, and let the ocean continue absorbing the carbon dioxide we’ve emitted.

In 1961, President Kennedy declared: “We will send a man to the moon and bring him back safely by the end of the decade.” At the time we had just sent a man into space for 15 minutes. We did not have the rockets, the navigation or the life support systems for a moon trip and most people, including my parents, thought it was complete folly. Seven years later we had developed and demonstrated the technology — ahead of schedule. We had a clear ambitious…

If you live in San Diego like I do, this headline surprises you. San Diego, #1 startup location, really? Was there a mistake? If you live in Silicon Valley, you are probably saying the same thing as you wisp across a Fortune-500 tech campus on a Segway. Put your iPads down, folks, San Diego is trying to rid itself of the “sunshine discount” by creating a vibrant quality-of-life business community for boomers and millennials alike.

As a freelance consultant with more clients in Latin America than in San Diego, I often gripe about the need to have a more robust community here locally. I remember past conversations with friends and mentors where, after a trip to SXSW, I’d say, “Have you been to Austin lately? Now they are doing it right!”; or “Seattle is the place to be right now as a young entrepreneur.” Now, after reading this article, I am saying to myself, “There is a lot of good happening right here at home! Maybe I should check the surf a bit less and pay closer attention to the temperature of the SD business community.” Since my background is in international affairs, sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility there is a strong professional pull to Sacramento, San Francisco, DC, New York, and (in my case) Rio de Janeiro. My goal is still to make San Diego my home base — which makes mom and dad happy up in Oceanside. For any young professional in San Diego, I believe patience and creativity on the professional front will provide big returns in the long run… and the timing is right.

Despite our Port, our proximity to the border with Mexico, our industries (defense, bio, tourism, beer making, renewables, etc), and our weather; I’d still say San Diego punches below its entrepreneurial weight. Yet, there is a real sense of a turning point. I remember when Nathan Fletcher was running for mayor after Hugs-Too-Much Filner got canned. Nathan proposed San Diego change its name to hint at something more innovative than America’s Finest City. “FINE” sounds like “ok”; but truth be told, we are doing exceptionally well.

(On a side note: I was saddened to see Nathan lose in his electoral bid for mayor, but am encouraged by what he did next: He took a trip to put it all behind him and got back to doing his innovative work for Qualcomm and UC San Diego.)

Here’s the list of other top cities:

San Diego

Denver

Austin, TX

Seattle

Portland, OR

San Francisco

Dallas, TX

Boston

New York City

Chicago

Well, that’s it for now. It’s 75 degrees and sunny. Time for a quick surf before I get back to work. Maybe I’ll see Craig Venter out in the water 😉

Eliot Peper just released Uncommon Stock on Amazon. In the process, he has started a whole new genre, the startup thriller. I am not surprised by Eliot’s creativity—nor will I be surprised by his literary success—and here’s why.

Eliot and I went to graduate school together. There is not enough storage space on this blog to enumerate the mile-long scroll of ideas he and I have dreamt up together over the years. Although it is fun to dream with friends, it is all the more rewarding to see them actually create that which they envision. My motto is good beer for big ideas and strong coffee for getting them done.

One of my fondest memories is when Eliot, Andrea Castillo (his fiancé), Lila Petersen, and I worked on a solar panel electrification project for a small fishing village in Baja California, Mexico. We dreamt up the project, got funding, and now those panels—along with their LED lights and small batteries—continue shine light for rural families to read comfortably at night years later.

Here’s Eliot

With Eliot’s most recent endeavor as an indie writer, I am witnessing what will surely become another fond memory. Through well-crafted prose and razor-sharp whit, Eliot shines a literary spotlight at the fast-paced startup industry in this debut novel, Uncommon Stock. Many distinguished entrepreneurs, much more savvy than myself in the startup space, have already showered the book with accolades.

In his book review, Brad Feld, managing director at Foundry Group and founder at Techstars says, “Insanely cool… a gripping roller coaster ride through the world of tech entrepreneurship. Tears you out of your seat and into a brand new genre, the startup thriller. Watch out, it will hijack your free time through to the last word. More, please?” I was delighted to find out that the content of Uncommon Stock extends beyond the book. Readers are actually able interact with the story’s protagonist, Mara Winkel, on Twitter.

Uncommon Stock Protagonist on Twitter

If you ask Eliot about his motives and marketing plan for this book, he’d tell you, “readers are the only people I am writing for and they are the people that will determine the success of Uncommon Stock. Want to hear my marketing plan? Write a story that people like enough to tell their friends about it. If I can do that, I chalk it up as a huge win.”

Eliot and I recently had a chance to chat. Below is the Q&A that resulted. If you are interested in even more insights directly from Eliot, I encourage you to take a look at this FAQ.

Jarrod: What is the creative process of writing like for you – beer, scotch, sleep, tea, repeat? Do you write in short bursts in a coffee shop or long, focused sessions surrounded by dark mahogany desks?

Eliot: I usually try to write in one to three hour sessions. If I write for less than an hour at a time, I don’t usually make much progress. Just like with running, it helps to warm up. If I write for more than three hours in one sitting, my brain just sort of shuts down and I stop being productive. Often I’ll have a cappuccino or cup of tea at hand. Sometimes some 70% cacao chocolate (go dark or go home).

J: Did you write Uncommon Stock in a linear fashion or did you hop around the plot? I.e. when you wrote the first word, did you more of less know what the last word would be?

E: I had no friggin’ clue what the last word was going to be when I started. People often classify writers as “plotters or pantsers.” I’m firmly in the latter category. I had an idea for a scene and a couple of characters that intrigued me and I started typing. Then I followed where the characters decided to take the story. It resulted in a lot of heavier editing after the first draft was complete and there were a lot of headaches along the way but it was a fun process. On my next book I might experiment with other options just to see what it feels like.

J: Where, physically, did you write this book?

E: Coffee shops, living rooms, Sri Lankan beaches, Ethiopian hostels, Nepalese cafes, my desk. Many writers have one spot where they get into their zone. I dabble.

J: Which character did you identify with most in the novel?

E: I think there’s a little bit of the writer in every character they write. It’s almost like you’re doing a personality transplant and mixing up the pot other elements. The important thing is that you think of characters as actually people. They’re your friends, not your toys. If you think of them as fictional, they start to feel fictional to the reader and break up the suspense with disbelief.

J: Who is your Mara in real life?

E: I’m blessed to have many strong women in my life. Mara is inspired by all of them. A reviewer last week described her as the “Lara Croft of startups” and I think that’s pretty awesome.

J: After finishing the publishing roller-coaster process culminating in your first book, how has your perspective of the industry changed?

E: I’ve learned a lot along the way. Uncommon Stock is the lead title for a brand new publishing company, FG Press. It’s a book about a tech startup in Boulder being published by a tech startup in Boulder! They’re doing it really differently and I’m thrilled to be on board for the ride. Basically, they offer a 50/50 royalty split to writers and are trying to shape a saner world for readers too.

That’s it, folks! Thanks for stopping by. I’ll sign off with a video from one of Eliot’s favorite songs, Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis’ “10,000 Hours”. It seemed fitting because Eliot is certainly on his way to 10,000 hours of writing. Good luck, my friend, on this new adventure!

Here’s a short video I did for a couple organizations based in Europe and Brazil. It’s based on my research and experiences in Brazil from Nov’12 – Feb’13. I think it does a solid job summing things up. Hope you enjoy it! And, as they say in Portuguese, “a gente se fala.” If you’d like to see the longer version with interviews, click here

Right now UNFCCC COP-19 is underway in Warsaw, Poland. For the second year in a row, I am missing the negotiations after having gone to Cancun and Durban (i.e COP-16 and -17). Unfortunately, not much is expected until COP-21 Paris. This Op-Ed was my attempt to pay it forward to friends and colleagues working out in the field and at the negotiations. I’ve seen the impacts of climate change with my own eyes in Latin America and Africa and can’t help but get a bit frustrated with the gridlock so succinctly described by David G. Victor in his book, Global Warming Gridlock. Amidst this gridlock, we have 2 years to get our ducks in a row by increasing political will in our home countries and, most importantly, building awareness and support for good ideas. On that note, I like what I have seen thus far with respect to the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy. With 52 million people and a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion, this is going to be a pilot project for the world. Paris, here we come!

Thanks Citizen’s Climate Lobby for teaching me about the California Climate Ride! I heard that someone on the East Coast’s version of the event road a unicycle from NYC to D.C. — that’s 300 miles! This things raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. Come ride with me!!! Here’s more info on the CA Climate Ride.